My 2009 Bookshelf

Actually, as most of the books I read this year were borrowed from the library or from other people, it's somewhat misleading to refer to these books as my bookshelf. As I start to run out of the books available in my library that I would actually want to read, I've had to rely increasingly on ordering books in from other libraries in the system. As this costs only 50p, it's still a lot cheaper than buying the books, even second hand or from Amazon. I read 182 books this year, well over double last year's count of 74; however, this year I had 12 months' worth of commuting (prime reading time), compared to only two months last year, so it is to be expected. As my commuting time will be decreasing again next year, I expect my book list to drop in size again.

I didn't keep track of fiction vs non-fiction this year, mainly because the vast majority of the books I read were fiction--my former problem of not being able to find enjoyable fiction has now been reversed. In fact if you took out the categories of "Tudor history" and "popular economics," I suspect my non-fiction reading list this year would look pretty empty.

These are my favourite five books of the year:

1. A Happy Marriage--Rafael Yglesias (very beautiful and very sad)
2. What I Loved--Siri Hufstedt (Mrs Paul Auster has a similar style and similar protagonists to her husband: this is the story of two friends, the women they love and the lives they lead; like Iglesias's book, What I Loved gets bonus points for being set in New York)
3. The Year of the Flood--Margaret Atwood (although I like a lot of Atwood's novels, especially Cat's Eye and The Handmaid's Tale, I was decidedly "meh" about her penultimate foray into science fiction speculative fition, Oryx and Crake; The Year of the Flood is Oryx and Crake's prequel and works much better, perhaps because the former has female protagonists, which Atwood seems to write a lot better)
4. American Wife--Curtis Sittenfeld (the story of a woman a lot like Laura Bush and a family a lot like the Bushes; I didn't know very much about Laura Bush before and while this is, clearly, fictional, the Laura character was portrayed very sympathetically and highlights the dangers of judging a woman by her husband...) 
5. Matter--Iain M. Banks (I wanted to choose The Girl at the Lion D'Or as my fifth choice but as I included a Sebastian Faulks novel last year and as there is another weepie in this year's shortlist, I included Matter instead, which is my favourite IMB novel to date)

Token non-fiction: The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser. I read so many books on Tudor history this year and it is, after all, the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's coronation. I thought Fraser's book was much better written than the David Starkey version.

Token mini-series: The Red Riding Quartet by David Peace. None of the books in this mini-series were strong enough on their own to make my top five (or, at least, it was hard to pick one of the four) but as a whole, I really enjoyed reading them and watching the three-part TV drama. It sure was grim up north in the '70s...

The full library of 2008; as usual, both the sublime and the ridiculous are covered:

• Peyton Place--Grace Metalious
• The God of Small Things--Arundhati Roy
• The Corrections--Jonathan Frantzen
• The Woman in the Fifth--Douglas Kennedy
• Lady Chatterley's Lover--D.H. Lawrence
• Possession--A.S. Byatt
• The Kingdom by the Sea--Paul Theroux
• Everyman--Philip Roth
• Interpretation of Murder--Jeb
• The Name of the Rose--Umberto Eco
• A Brief History of Secret Societies--David Barrett
• Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man--James Joyce
• Crime and Punishment--Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Bomber--Len Deighton
• My Cousin Rachel--Daphne Du Maurier
• Uneasy Money--P.G. Wodehouse
• Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves--P.G. Wodehouse
• The Postman Always Rings Twice--James M. Cain
• Gossip, Grooming and the Evolution of Language--Robin Dunbar
• The Mind of the Market--Michael Shermer
• Slaughterhouse 5--Kurt Voneghaut
• Why Do People Believe Weird Things?--Michael Shermer
• Jamaica Inn--Daphne Du Maurier
• A Good School--Richard Yates
• The Last Tycoon--F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Logic of Life--Tim Harford
• False Impression--Jeffrey Archer
• Everything Bad Is Good for You--Steven Johnson
• The Reader--Bernhard Schlink
• The 19th Wife--David Ebershoff
• Descartes' Baby--Paul Bloom
• The Human Story--Robin Dunbar
• Mistress of the Art of Death--Ariana Franklin
• 1974--David Peace
• The Age of Innocence--Edith Wharton
• 1977--David Peace
• 1980--David Peace
• 1983--David Peace
• The Death Maze--Ariana Franklin
• Q&A--Vikas Swarup
• Foucault's Pendulum--Umberto Eco
• In Search of the Perfect Language--Umberto Eco
• The Outcast--Sadie Jones
• The Valley of the Dolls-Jacqueline Susann
• Trainspotting--Irvine Welsh
• Eleanor of Aquitaine--Alison Weir
• Henry: Virtuous Prince--David Starkey
• The Other Queen--Philippa Gregory
• Cult of the Amateur--Andrew Keen
• Innocent Traitor--Alison Weir
• The Six Wives of Henry VIII--Antonia Fraser
• Children of Men--PD James
• Arbella, England's Lost Queen--Sarah Gristwood
• The Infamous Lady Rochford--Julia Fox
• Cityboy--Geraint Anderson
• Nudge--Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
• Vile Bodies--Evelyn Waugh
• Chéri--Colette
• Fatherland--Robert Harris
• Couples-John Updike
• Do Androids Dream of Electic Sheep?--Philip K. Dick
• How to Travel with a Salmon and Other Essays--Umberto Eco
• The Sorrows of an American--Siri Hustvedt
• The Man in the High Castle--Philip K. Dick
• Sovereign--C.S. Sansom
• Mary Tudor--Anna Whitelock
• Perfume--Patrick Suskind
• Presumed Innocent--Scott Turlow
• Living with Teenagers--Anonymous
• On Green Dolphin Street--Sebastian Faulks
• True Tales of American Life--Paul Auster
• The Crimson Petal and the White--Michel Faber
• The Yellow Wallpaper--Charlotte Gilman Perkins
• The Last of the Mohicans--James Fenimore Cooper 
• The Witches of Eastwick--John Updike
• Revelation--CJ Sansom
• Last Exit to Brooklyn--Hubert Selby Jr.
• Matter--Iain M. Banks
• Afterwards--Rachel Seiffert
• The Girl at the Lion D'Or--Sebastian Faulks
• The Sixth Wife--Suzannah Dunn
• The Anglo-Files--Sarah Lyall
• The Queen's Sorrows--Suzannah Dunn
• The Hours--Michael Cunningham
• Zodiac--Robert Graysmith
• What I Loved--Siri Hustvedt
• The Post Office Girl--Stefan Zweig
• Hoax--Clifford Irving
• Under the Skin--Michel Faber
• Public Enemies--Brian Burrough
• The Golden Notebook--Doris Lessing
• American Wife--Curtis Sittenfeld
• Dark Fire--CJ Sansom
• The Other Hand--Chris Cleave
• Captain Corelli's Mandolin--Louis de Bernieres
• The Robber Bride--Margaret Atwood
• The Importance of Being Trivial--Mark Mason
• The Sisters Who Would Be Queen--Leanda De Lisle
• The Algebraist--Iain M. Banks
• Down Under--Bill Bryson
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--Douglas Adams
• Fahrenheit 451--Ray Bradbury
• Super-Cannes--JG Ballard
• Swimsuit--James Patterson 
• The Abortionist's Daughter--Elisabeth Hyde
• Outliers--Malcolm Gladwell
• The House at Riverton--Kate Morton
• Minority Report--Philip K Dick
• World Without End--Ken Follett
• Pillars of the Earth--Ken Follett
• I See You Everywhere--Julia Glass
• Treason in Tudor England--Lacey Baldwin-Smith
• The Road--Cormac McCarthy
• War and Peace--Leo Tolstoy
• My Sister's Keeper--Jodi Picoult
• The Suspicions of Mr Whicher--Kate Summerscale
• Leaving the World--Douglas Kennedy
• Pompeii--Robert Harris
• For Whom the Bell Tolls--Ernest Hemingway
• An Education--Lynn Barber
• Flat Earth News--Nick Davies
• The Accidental--Ali Smith
• The Pact--Jodi Picoult
• Illegal Action--Stella Rimington
• The White Queen--Phillippa Gregory
• Hideous Kinky--Esther Freud
• The Things We Do for Love--Imogen Parker
• The Wasp Factory--Iain Banks 
• The Time of Our Lives--Imogen Parker
• Change of Heart--Jodi Picoult
• Love in the Time of Cholera--Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• A Week in December--Sebastian Faulks
• The Lady Elizabeth--Alison Weir
• The Associate--John Grisham
• The Tenth Circle--Jodi Picoult
• Salem Falls--Jodi Picoult
• Inherent Vice--Thomas Pynchon
• Mercy--Jodi Picoult
• Nineteen Minutes--Jodi Picoult
• Wolf Hall--Hilary Mantel
• Perfect Match-Jodi Picoult
• Vanishing Acts--Jodi Picoult
• Julie and Julia--Julie Powell
• Dante's Numbers--David Hewson
• Crash--JG Ballard
• Handle with Care--Jodi Picoult
• Wuthering Heights--Emily Bronte
• My Trade--Andrew Marr
• The Murders in the Rue Morgue--Edgar Allen Poe
• The Widows of Eastwick--John Updike
• Mary, Queen of Scots--Antonia Fraser
• The Liar--Stephen Fry
• Second Glance--Jodi Picoult
• The Year of the Flood--Margaret Atwod
• The Damned United--David Peace
• Plain Truth--Jodi Picoult
• The Bostonians--Henry James
• Lancaster and York--Alison Weir
• Rivals--Jilly Cooper
• Appassionata--Jilly Cooper
• Engleby--Sebastian Faulks
• A Happy Marriage--Rafael Yglesias
• Superfreakonomics--Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
• This Little World--Imogen Parker
• Grave Goods--Ariana Franklin
• Gate of Air--James Buchan
• Alice in Sunderland--Bryan Talbot
• The Watchmen--Alan Moore
• Last Night in Twisted River--John Irving
• Catch 22--Joseph Heller
• London Fields--Martin Amis 
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo--Steig Larsson
• Elizabeth's Women--Tracy Borman 
• The Audacity of Hype--Arnando Iannucci
• Black Dogs--Ian McEwan
• A Fool's Alphabet--Sebastian Faulks
• Scottsboro--Ellen Feldman
• Invisible--Paul Auster
• The Girl Who Played with Fire--Steig Larsson
• Como Agua Para Chocolate--Laura Esquivel
• Jolly Super Too--Jilly Cooper
• Suite Française--Irène Némirovsky

2009 on the Silver Screen

Not only did I finally achieve my goal of watching at least half of the movies in the IMDb Top 250 this year, but I also watched almost twice as many movies this year as in 2008 (114 compared to last year's 67, although this total includes films I've watched on DVD, on TV and on planes, as well as in the cinema). This meant it was even more difficult to pick my top five movies of the year (like last year, I'm only considering movies released in the UK in 2009), but these are my final choices, in chronological order:

1. Gran Torino (2009 was the year I really got into Clint Eastwood films and this was the one that kicked it all off; only Clint could make, "get off my lawn" into a catchphrase)
2. Moon (Bowie Junior did good--a haunting and compelling film that stayed with me, even though I'm not usually fussed about films set in space)
3. Mesrine: L'instinct de mort (I watch so many thrillers that there had to be at least one in the top five and this was tightly structured, well-paced and with great acting from the charismatic Vincent Cassel)
4. The Boys Are Back (not just because it starred Clive, although he did a great job and it was by far the best of his three films released this year)
5. An Education (I was waiting for this to be released for a long time and it definitely lived up to my expectations)

Honourable mention: In the Loop, a) because although there are some wonderfully funny lines in An Education, it's really more of a drama than a comedy and although I tend to watch fewer comedies than dramas, I felt there ought to be at least one funny film highlighted, and b) because it was this film that got me into the TV series from which it was spun off, The Thick of It, which is now one of my favourite programmes.

And here is the full list of new films I've watched this year:
The Wild Bunch
The Reader
Paris, Je T'aime--DVD
In Bruges--DVD
The Machinist--DVD
Slumdog Millionaire
Milk
Notorious
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Brassed Off--DVD
Dog Day Afternoon--Plane
Falling Down--Plane
Revolutionary Road
Barry Lyndon
Withnail & I--DVD
Doubt
Vertigo--DVD
North by Northwest--DVD
Gone with the Wind--DVD
The Wrestler
The Big Sleep--DVD
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
The Class
The Terminator--DVD
Gran Torino
The International
Gun Crazy
Watchmen
Chinatown
The Maltese Falcon
The Sting--DVD
Duplicity
Two Lovers
Genova
Fifty Dead Men Walking
Million Dollar Baby--DVD
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?--DVD
Les 400 Coups
Trainspotting--DVD
His Girl Friday--DVD
In the Loop
Sleuth--DVD
State of Play
Psycho--DVD
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)--DVD
Dial M for Murder--DVD
Sounds Like Teen Spirit
To Catch a Thief--DVD
Synecdoche, New York
The Birds--DVD
A Woman Cut in Two
Straw Dogs--DVD
Days of Heaven--DVD
Fireflies in the Garden
Star Trek
Pour Elle
Sunset Blvd--DVD
Looking for Eric
Sunshine Cleaning
Rudo y Cursi
Public Enemies
Heat--DVD
Point Break--DVD
Brüno
Good Will Hunting--DVD
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
The Conversation--DVD
Moon
Once Upon a Time in the West
Life of Brian--DVD
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Coco avant Chanel
Mesrine: L'instinct de mort
The Time Traveler's Wife
Hotel Rwanda--DVD
Inglourious Basterds
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Valkyrie--DVD
Adam
Walk the Line--DVD
Mesrine: L'ennemi Public n° 1
The Hurt Locker
Broken Embraces
Away We Go
(500) Days of Summer
Play Misty for Me--DVD
Julie and Julia
Unforgiven--DVD
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner--DVD
The September Issue
Dorian Gray
The Soloist
Bellamy
The Way We Were--DVD
The Informant!
The Boys Are Back
Croupier--DVD
Chloe
Capitalism: A Love Story
The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus
Roman Holiday--DVD
The Thomas Crown Affair--DVD
An Education
Citizen Kane
Glorious 39
Bright Star
Close My Eyes--DVD
The Brothers Bloom--DVD
The White Ribbon
Cracks
Avatar
Father of the Bride--TV
Le Promeneur du Champ de Mars--DVD